But the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.
T. E. Lawrence via 52 Weeks of UX
Doug Pray’s Art & Copy screens tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Doris Duke Theater.
Great video podcast interview with Dieter Rams. via Jon
A harrowing tale about a book headed towards doom, only to detour towards its author upon a European journey back to Airspace Workshop.
The Decemberists performed The Hazards of Love at The Treasure Island Music Festival this past Sunday. The highlight of my weekend was their rock opera’s visual treatment, which had me scouring the web looking for some trace of the film. This morning I tripped over the tasty href I had fruitlessly searched for in my inbox, courtesy of Boards. The full-length version will be available on iTunes December 1st.
Each volume of the Time-Life Life Science Library has a radical little icon on its back cover, further proof of the awesomeness of 1960’s graphic design. Above is a sampling of some of the work. I’ll leave it up to you to guess what volume each represents.
Received the Phaidon Design Classics set in the post as a gift, thanks Chef Pants! Everything from the safety pin to the Powerbook is contained within these three volumes of design pr0n. Sadly, the “specially designed carrying unit” is so poorly designed it’s embarrassing. It’s like delivering someone stacks of gold in this thing.
Decompressing from my whirlwind tour of Paris, Amsterdam, the Channel Isles, Washington D.C., Cape Cod and San Francisco. Whew, it’s tiring just writing all that. Squeezed the trigger to the tune of 20 or so rolls, some 35, but mostly 120 via the M645 1000S. Officially given up on the Holga for the moment, prime glass performs so much better than Chinese plastic. Photos forthcoming, gotta visit the lab first.
After seeing how much exceptional design exists in the world, there really isn’t any excuse for mediocrity, which unfortunately is abundant in Hawaii. There have been numerous discussions as to why this is the case, but ultimately the market is too small, and cultural norms prevent open criticism. Individuals are simply too nice, too interconnected. Those qualities make Hawaii a very special place to reside, but increased comfort breeds complacency.
Stopped by Droog during my visit to Amsterdam and saw this push and store cabinet firsthand. The store-slash-studio is a minimalist mixture of ready-made and one-off creations, nearly everything is intelligent and progressive. The Dutch have a particular order they employ that not only pervades their design, but their entire culture as well.
Amsterdam is a small city dissected by circular canals, and if you think people bike a lot in San Francisco, then you haven’t seen the thousands of bikes parked at Amsterdam Centraal. Everyone rides one, it’s a way of life, not a way to show off your skinny jeans and day-glo colors. Sure they’re known as the place of legal drugs and prostitution (an image their actively trying to shake), but that’s a mere 200-yard stretch of the entire city.
Now, Honolulu is a small city too, and although we don’t have canals, we are surrounded by the largest body of water on Earth. We’re known for our beaches, sunny 80-degree weather, and rich cultural history. People are filled with aloha, more so than the Dutch, and we have our own tourist district too, complete with prostitutes.
So the question is, where’s our Droog? Where’s our progressive innovation? Why tolerate the trappings of the HTA packaging and subsist in recreational mediocrity?
